DATA SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM 2019

presented by the UC Center for Business Analytics

OCT 10 and 11th

Lindner College of Business Cincinnati | Ohio

event

details

This year the Data Science Symposium 2019 has been expanded into a two-day event on October 10 & 11 in the new state of the art Lindner College of Business building, featuring 3 keynote speakers and 16 tech talks/tutorials.

Why Attend The Data Science Symposium 2019

PURPOSE
Our focus is on analytics and data science content to support the growth and development of analytics efforts in business, government and non-profit organizations.

KNOWLEDGEThree data science keynotes and 16 tech talk/tutorial presenters will share their knowledge of the latest tools and trends. Learn how they apply different tools in their industry.

NETWORKINGConnect with data scientists, analysts, presenters and practitioners. Executives from multiple industries will be there to learn best practices and meet attendees who could be good fits for their organization.

Cancellation Policy
Substitutions are allowed at any time
No refunds or credits if cancelling 2 weeks or less before class/event date
All discount codes must be used at initial registration. No refunds after registration

The event fee is $395 and includes all keynotes and tech talks, meals, snacks, reception and parking for both days. We welcome all currently enrolled full-time students, faculty from any school and non-profits! Send an email from your .edu or .org email address (include documentation of your full-time student status) to receive the discount code.

Thank you to our sponsors

Title : Transforming the Automotive Industry with Data and Analytics Abstract: Craig Brabec will provide an overview on how the Global Data, Insight & Analytics organization is helping to transform Ford Motor Company. Craig will present the journey Ford is currently undertaking as well as the challenges and opportunities that come along with it.

Bio: As an enterprise champion of Data Analytics, Craig provides clear and applicable intelligence to enable better decision making for the enterprise.

Craig has over 25 years of experience working in automotive, health care, manufacturing, supply chain, construction, management consulting and the military. He has served in roles including Strategy Champion, 6 Sigma Champion, program management, IT and global supply chain management.

Craig currently serves on Advisory Councils for global companies, focused on advanced analytics and digital transformation. He is an accomplished speaker, including major conferences, universities and corporate events.

Mr. Brabec served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps. He graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with distinction from the University of Illinois. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer. He is active in the promotion of STEM initiatives and the advancement of science and technology initiatives in education.

Title: Innovation versus Disruption..How NOT to break your Org with AnalyticsAbstract: Creating “change” in an organization is never easy, much less changes to a companies’ core culture…how it makes decisions and gets work done. When it comes to the area of “Big Data”, “Machine Learning”, “Advanced Analytics”, etc., it can be even more complex because even people who live in those areas everyday can’t even seem to agree on the definitions.

Bio: Cameron Davies joined NBC Universal in 2013 filling the newly created role of Senior Vice President, Analytics and Strategy. In his role, he is responsible for the overall development and execution of the NBCU data and advanced analytics strategies designed to further NBCU priorities and support evolving business models. This includes areas such defining and leading the overall NBCU Data Strategy, Forecasting, Content Efficacy, Pricing and Yield Management, and “Big Data”, Machine Learning, and advanced AI.

Cameron came from Disney where he led the internal COE for Advanced Analytics, Management Science and Integration. In this role, Cameron worked closely with Disney executives across the enterprise to deliver advanced analytics tools to drive business priorities. Cameron spent over 17 years at Disney developing and leading advanced analytical teams across a variety of business areas including Disney Parks and Resorts, Media Networks, Walt Disney Studios, Disney Interactive, and Disney Consumer Products. Prior to joining Disney he spent time as a Professor of Business/Finance for Pensacola Christian College.

Cameron has a MBA, Master of Accountancy (MACC) and a BS Business Administration/Accounting from the University of West Florida.

John Elder
Chairman of the Board, Elder Research “Data Mining” Instructor and “Advanced Analytics” Track Speaker

Advanced Analytics Track Session 1Title: What to Optimize? The Heart of Every Analytics ProblemAbstract: Every analytics challenge reduces, at its technical core, to optimizing a metric. Product recommendation engines push items to maximize a customer's purchases; fraud detection algorithms flag transactions to minimize losses; and so forth. As modeling and classification (optimization) algorithms improve over time, one could imagine obtaining a solution merely by defining the guiding metric. But are our tools that good? More importantly, are we aiming them in the right direction? I think, too often, the answer is no. I'll argue for clear thinking about what exactly it is we ask our computer assistant to do for us, and recount some illustrative war stories. (Analytic heresy guaranteed.)

Bio: Dr. John Elder founded Elder Research, America’s largest and most experienced analytics consultancy in 1995. With offices in Charlottesville VA, Baltimore MD, Raleigh, NC and Washington DC, they’ve solved hundreds of challenges for commercial and government clients by extracting actionable knowledge from all types of data. Dr. Elder co-authored three books -- on practical data mining, ensembles, and text mining -- two of which won “book of the year” awards. John has created data mining tools, was a discoverer of ensemble methods, chairs international conferences, and is a popular workshop and keynote speaker.

Dr. Elder earned Engineering degrees from Rice and UVA, where he’s an Adjunct Professor. He was named by President Bush to serve 5 years on a panel to guide technology for national security. Lastly, John is grateful to be a follower of Christ and the father of five.

Title: What Makes a Good Data Visualization?Abstract: An in depth look at what it takes to make a good data visualization, from function to aesthetics. Examine how design decisions, for example, picking the right chart types and choosing the colors, can have a big impact on the effectiveness of the visualization.

Bio: Jeffrey Shaffer, Tableau Zen Master, is an expert in applying data visualization to create insights and competitive advantage. Mr. Shaffer is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business where he teaches Data Visualization in the graduate course series for Data Analytics. He is a regular speaker at conferences, symposiums, universities and corporate training programs on the topic of data visualization, he writes for the data visualization blog at Data + Science and he was a finalist in the 2011 Tableau Interactive Visualization Competition. Mr. Shaffer also teaches data visualization at the KPMG Advisory University. Mr. Shaffer is Vice President of Information Technology and Analytics at Unifund. He joined Unifund in 1996 and has been instrumental in the creation and development of the complex systems, analytics and business intelligence platform at Unifund.

Bio: Brad Boehmke, PhD, is the Director of Data Science at 84.51°, Professor at three universities, author of the Data Wrangling with R book, and creator of multiple R open source packages and data science short courses. He focuses on developing algorithmic processes, solutions, and tools that enable 84.51° and its analysts to efficiently extract insights from data and provide solution alternatives to decision-makers. He has a wide analytic skill set covering descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytic capabilities applied across multiple domains including retail, healthcare, cyber intelligence, finance, Department of Defense, and aerospace. Summary of his works is available online at bradleyboehmke.github.io.

Brandon Greenwell, 84.51
“Machine Learning with R” Instructor

Bio: Brandon Greenwell, PhD, is a Senior Data Scientist for 84.51 and Adjunct Professor of Statistics at University of Cincinnati. He is the author of several R packages on CRAN and has published several articles, including two in The R Journal, and is currently co-authoring an R book with Brad Boehmke---Advanced Business Analytics with R: Description, Prediction, and Prescription---to be published by CRC Press in early 2019.

Jay Shan
Professor, University of Cincinnati“Big Data with Hadoop and Spark” Instructor

Bio: Zhe (Jay) Shan is currently an assistant professor in Department of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems in the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Business Administration and Operations Research from Penn State University Smeal College of Business in 2011. Before joining UC OBAIS, he worked as Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Manhattan College School of Business for two years. Personal website: http://homepages.uc.edu/~shanze/

Bio: Glenn Wegryn is the Executive Director, University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics and has more than 30 years of global experience in Analytics. He spent 28 years at Proctor and Gamble, most notably as the creator and leader of P&G’s award winning Supply Chain Analytics Group. He is a three-time finalist for the Franz Edelman prize awarded annually by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for advanced analytics applications. Wegryn and his team were recognized for optimization techniques that saved P&G hundreds of millions of dollars.

Glenn retired from P&G in 2012 and founded Analytic Impact LLC, an independent consultancy providing supply chain analysis and Analytic thought leadership to organizations looking to gain the competitive advantage analytics can offer to them. An active speaker and advocate for Analytics in the Boardroom, Glenn has shared his experiences at conferences, CIO and CMO events and has been an invited speaker at Fortune 500 companies, and at University of Cincinnati, Wayne State and University of Texas at Austin events. He currently serves as an advisor to the Business Analytics programs at UC and UT. Glenn earned a BS in Quantitative Business Analysis from Indiana University and is an INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional.

Title: “Data Visualization: The Cure for Data Rich Information Poor Syndrome”Abstract: Organizations find themselves owning a lot of data and data visualization is still widely unknown to most businesses. This session will cover how to launch a data visualization group within a company from start to finish and will discuss methods on how to create visualizations to make fast impactful business decisions. Building from a foundation of spreadsheets and poor data quality we will focus on how to create a scalable data infrastructure and a flexible visualization platform to help overcome common hurdles faced by organizations. Focus will be given on recommendations on how to grow and develop a data visualization culture to help gain support within a business and how to scale by hiring and developing a team of champions to handle the potential growth. Attendees will learn about favorite strategies used to leverage data visualization principals to create clear and concise visualizations to rapidly gain support for a data visualization center of excellence.

Bio: Experienced business intelligence professional with expertise in analyzing marketing, sales, financial and research data in order to develop strategies to enhance business growth. Strongly proficient at quickly assessing and analyzing data in order to present complex information to technical professionals as well as executives and non-technical professionals. I enjoy positions where I can leverage my skills within information systems, data visualization, and analytics with my competencies of business administration, marketing, and finance.

Geoff Marsh
BI Practice Leader “Data Visualization” Track Speaker

Bio: Geoff has a willingness and passion to succeed while becoming a resource to those around him. He compliments eight years of industry experience with a finance background and deep understanding of core ERP systems to drive solutions and results. Geoff has demonstrated expertise in leadership, decision making, client delivery, business analysis, and prides himself on being the bridge between data and decisions. His career highlights include architecting financial analytics systems for both Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 organizations, is on the board of the University of Cincinnati OBAIS department, and is the Practice Leader of AMEND’s Business Intelligence team.

Derek Sasthav
Project Leader, Amend Consulting

Bio: Derek is a Project Leader at AMEND, focusing on business intelligence and data science projects. Previously, Derek has worked at GE Aviation and the IBM North American Analytics Center. Outside of consulting, Derek teaches data science seminars on topics ranging from machine learning with Python to SQL to data visualization. He has taught courses at schools such as MIT, Columbia University, and London Business School as well as corporations and CFA societies across the country.

Title: Ecommerce Business Tools SuiteAbstract: Ecommerce operations have challenging profiles (small orders, each picking, large item count, fast turn times). These operations frequently require analytical tools and systems’ enhancements to run efficiently. In this presentation we will share the fundamentals of the suite of optimization and simulation tools that can improve the efficiency of ecommerce operations considerably. These tools can effectively turbo charge a Warehouse Management System similar to an expensive Warehouse Execution System at fraction of the cost.

Bio: Adrian joined DHL Supply Chain in 2001 after working in operations at McDonald’s Restaurants and logistics design at Loblaw Companies Limited. Adrian is responsible for DHL Supply Chain’s Solutions Design department servicing all market verticals including e-commerce, Automotive, Consumer, Life Sciences, Retail and Technology. He manages a team of more than 50 associates working upwards of 500 supply chain projects a year. Adrian has a Masters in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and teaches part time at The Ohio State University.

Title: Ecommerce Business Tools SuiteAbstract: Ecommerce operations have challenging profiles (small orders, each picking, large item count, fast turn times). These operations frequently require analytical tools and systems’ enhancements to run efficiently. In this presentation we will share the fundamentals of the suite of optimization and simulation tools that can improve the efficiency of ecommerce operations considerably. These tools can effectively turbo charge a Warehouse Management System similar to an expensive Warehouse Execution System at fraction of the cost.

Bio: Manjeet specializes in complex data analytics and mathematical modeling across DHL’s Global Center of Design Excellence. Prior to joining DHL in February 2015, he worked at Netjets in their Business Insights & Analytics department, developing and implementing advanced analytical tools. He has 10+ years of extensive research experience, published papers in various distinguished technical journals and frequently presents at industry and academic conferences. Manjeet has a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Ohio university.

Title: MegaTrends in Data & AnalyticsAnstract: What happens when advanced analytics not only disrupts your business models, but even your own analytics organization? Only the most agile survive. Analytics organizations are struggling to cope with the evolving business requirements that started with needing to only solve ad-hoc wicked problems and then added expectations of becoming C-Suite analytical story tellers that influence every decision in a company. Now analytics organizations are the decision-makers. During this session, we will discuss the underlying causes of the large disruptions and forecasts for the future as to where your analytic investments will have the most impact in the future.

Bio: David Dittmann is the Director Business Intelligence & Analytics Services for Procter & Gamble’s Global Business Services organization. He is responsible for Business Intelligence and the Analytics organizations spanning across P&G’s Global Business Units. With more than 18 years of experience at P&G, David’s career has focused on leveraging Analytics into P&G’s Marketing, Product Supply and Customer Business Development organizations. Previously, he was responsible for establishing Business Intelligence & Analytics for Asia in Singapore. His organizations have been recognized with numerous industry awards. David is a frequent industry speaker and is passionate around using analytics to make unconventional connections across all aspects of business.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering and a Master of Science in Operations Research & Engineering Management both from The Ohio State University. He currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife Shannon and three children Nathan, Abigail and Alyssa.

Bio: Anne is responsible for the overarching strategic vision across Verizon’s global supply chain which includes the wireless consumer supply chain, network supply chain, video and internet supply chain as well as global sourcing and procurement. Additionally, her team drives supply chain excellence through world class data-analytics, process innovation, and employee empowerment to achieve a holistic, collaborative and customer centric supply chain organization, that results in improved product life cycle management, working capital optimization, and shareholder value.

Co-presenter: Christopher DiCesareTitle: Supervised Machine Learning of Time Series Accelerometer Data to Reduce False Positives in Brain NeuroscienceAbstract: The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that, by the year 2020, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) will rank third as a leading cause of the global burden of disease and injury. Current efforts to protect the brain from outside the skull (e.g., helmets, mouthpieces, and padding) have not led to any significant reduction in neither the incidence nor the extent of concussive brain injury as they do not limit movement and collision of the brain within the cranium. However, these investigations are limited by the accuracy of head impact exposure surveillance and quantification; in fact, many accelerometers yield a false positive rate of 66% or more. In conjunction with the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Business Analytics, we have developed a model to differentiate true and false positives that uses supervised machine learning of the time series recorded by the accelerometers.

Bio: Gregory D. Myer, PhD, FACSM, CSCS*D, is the director of research and The Human Performance Laboratory for the Division of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and maintains his primary faculty appointment in the departments of Pediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Myer has published over 300 articles in peer reviewed medical journals and has published books and several book chapters related to his research on the injury biomechanics, human performance, pediatric exercise science, preventative medicine and sensorimotor neuroscience.

Dr. Myer has received numerous awards for his excellence in sports medicine research. Among those awards are the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine’s O’Donoghue Sports Injury Research Award (2005, 2015) and The NCAA Research Award (2010), National Strength & Conditioning Association Sports Medicine/Rehabilitation Specialist of the Year (2011), the Association of Bone & Joint Surgeons Nicolas Andry Award (2012), and the George J. Davies - James A. Gould Excellence in Clinical Inquiry Award Excellence in Clinical Inquiry Award (2014, 2016). Dr. Myer has been recognized three times by the Clint Thompson Award for Clinical Advancement in Athletic Training (2005, 2010, and 2013). Greg has been recognized for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Kappa Delta/OREF Clinical Research Award, British Journal of Sports Medicine Systematic Review Award, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine O’Donoghue Sports Injury Research Award, American Journal of Sports Medicine Systematic Review Award, and Sports Health Journal T. David Sisk Research Award. More recently Greg has been the recipient of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions Outstanding Alumnus Award and Franklin College Distinguished Alumni Award where he received his doctoral and undergraduate degrees respectively.

Case Studies in Big Data/Analytics
Track Speaker 2TBD

Bill Franks
Track Speaker 3TBD

Title: Cutting Through The Hype: What You Need To Know About Artificial IntelligenceAbstract:This talk will cut through the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) and help the audience better understand what they need to know about the state of AI today. Included in the discussion will be examples of AI in action and the value it can drive, what AI can and can’t do today, how AI differs from (and is similar to) other analytics approaches, tips on getting started, and perspectives on the future of AI. The aim of the presentation is to be both educational and thought provoking.

Bio: Bill Franks is IIA’s Chief Analytics Officer, where he provides perspective on trends in the analytics and big data space and helps clients understand how IIA can support their efforts and improve analytics performance. His focus is on translating complex analytics into terms that business users can understand and working with organizations to implement their analytics effectively. His work has spanned many industries for companies ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small non-profits. Franks is the author of the book Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., April, 2012). In the book, he applies his two decades of experience working with clients on large-scale analytics initiatives to outline what it takes to succeed in today’s world of big data and analytics. Franks’ second book The Analytics Revolution (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., September, 2014) lays out how to move beyond using analytics to find important insights in data (both big and small) and into operationalizing those insights at scale to truly impact a business. He is an active speaker who has presented at dozens of events in recent years. His blog, Analytics Matters, addresses the transformation required to make analytics a core component of business decisions.

Sandy Steiger
Vice President, Analytics, 84.51°Creating an Analytics Team in an Ever Evolving World

Title: Creating an Analytics Team in an Ever Evolving WorldAbstract: This talk with focus on what the speaker believes to be the four most important aspects of creating a team: 1. Set the Vision - what do you want the team to be known for? These are the things you want to be able to say you accomplished together as a team - you need a solid understanding of where the market and industry is going to set the appropriate vision. 2. Define the Culture - cultivate a community. When a group of people, a team, feel connected, like a family, they will do better and be better. 3. Build the Team - what talent should you be recruiting to help you achieve your vision? Make sure you also focus on developing your existing talent. 4. Be a Leader - every team has a lead, but great leader motivates their army to want to follow them even when things get tough.

Bio: Sandy Steiger is Vice President of Analysis at 84.51°. She has held many roles within the dunnhumby and 84.51° organizations over the last thirteen years, all quantitative roles focused on telling the customer story through data science and insights. Sandy has been involved in helping to shape the data + analytics revolution at 84.51°, cultivating a curious Analytics Community, and bringing customer data to life through storytelling. Prior to 84.51°, Sandy received her Masters of Science in Statistics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Business Administration from Mount St. Joseph University.

Bio: Cheryl Wiebe leads Industrial Intelligence, an analytic solutions practice that formed from her work initiating the Analytics of Things practice within Teradata. Helping companies pursue digitization has been central to her work over the past 20 years, consulting with global 1000 clients who are embedding and operationalizing analytics at scale into industrial internet, connected mobility, connected factory, connected supply chain, and other emerging settings such as smart cities. She is deeply involved in painting the vision for the use of advanced and predictive analytics in emerging digital businesses leveraging IoT and increasingly connected devices, and has become a trusted advisor to clients who are pursuing their Internet of Things journey.

Bio: Nick Krall enters his 16th season with the Reds and his second as Vice President, Assistant General Manager. In his role, he assists President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Dick Williams with all day-to-day Major League operations, which include administration, arbitration, contract negotiations, rules and waivers compliance, and player acquisitions. Krall also oversees the Professional Scouting department and the Baseball Operations Intern program, which has led to numerous former interns finding employment in the baseball industry. Additionally, he works closely with the Amateur Scouting, Analytics and Player Development departments.

Title: Storytelling: The Last Mile of AnalyticsAbstract: Your goal as an analyst is simple: Use the tools, data, and skills at your disposal to extract insights and prescribe action. But how do we ensure that those who will implement those findings will take that action? Telling a compelling story and engaging the emotions of our audience is critical. In this session we will explore why stories work, and how to construct and tell a story that will increase your chances of successfully influencing your organization.

Bio: After more than 20 years with Macy’s, Stuart now helps to lead the organization’s charge towards becoming more data driven in operational decision making and optimizing the customer experience. Leading to his current role, Stuart held positions in call center operations, systems development, offshore BPO management, financial planning, process improvement, workforce management, and more. Stuart’s current team includes technologist, data scientists, modelers, analysts, and expert story tellers. This diversity of roles and experiences allows Stuart to understand where and how practical analytics can add value and drive results in a large and complex retail support environment. Stuart earned his BS and MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Title: Worldpay Case Study: Driving Operational Insights with (Big) DataAbstract: Think about the challenge of processing millions of debit and credit card authorizations every day while simultaneously fielding thousands of phone calls from your customer base– 7X24X365. Doing the processing is hard enough, but how do you capture the critical data for reporting and alerting decision makers quickly? This is the problem Vantiv, now Worldpay continues to tackle. In the last few years, the Operations department has gone from Excel “stop light” reporting to a series of automated business intelligence dashboards. These dashboards have been designed to serve business leaders and high level executives from several key areas. These include the Customer Contact Center, Card Production, Disputes Management, Fraud Management, and much more. Using new big data capabilities, along with proven visualization and business intelligence techniques, Vantiv, now Worldpay, automates the processing of millions of rows of data every day to show key business metrics. This discussion walks through the challenges, insights, and lessons learned of building this operational platform. It also takes a look at the output from both a business and technical perspective. During the discussion, challenges, insights and key lessons learned will be highlighted.

Bio: Debbi Young is the Cincinnati Data and Analytics Practice Lead for Centric Consulting. She has over 30 years of experience in program management, technology, and driving value with data. Debbi worked as the Program Lead for Vantiv, now Worldpay for the design, development and deployment of the operational solution.

Title: Worldpay Case Study: Driving Operational Insights with (Big) DataAbstract: Think about the challenge of processing millions of debit and credit card authorizations every day while simultaneously fielding thousands of phone calls from your customer base– 7X24X365. Doing the processing is hard enough, but how do you capture the critical data for reporting and alerting decision makers quickly? This is the problem Vantiv, now Worldpay, continues to tackle. In the last few years, the Operations department has gone from Excel “stop light” reporting to a series of automated business intelligence dashboards. These dashboards have been designed to serve business leaders and high level executives from several key areas. These include the Customer Contact Center, Card Production, Disputes Management, Fraud Management, and much more. Using new big data capabilities, along with proven visualization and business intelligence techniques, Vantiv, now Worldpay, automates the processing of millions of rows of data every day to show key business metrics. This discussion walks through the challenges, insights, and lessons learned of building this operational platform. It also takes a look at the output from both a business and technical perspective. During the discussion, challenges, insights and key lessons learned will be highlighted.

Bio: Grant Rowan manages the Data Informatics team supporting the Operations division of Vantiv, Now Worldpay. Grant has 12+ years of experience in reporting and analytics and has spent the last 10 years of his career with Vantiv, now Worldpay. Grant’s team is responsible for developing and delivering automated reporting as well as the creation of self-service data solutions for 20+ functional areas throughout Operations at Vantiv, now Worldpay.

Title: Applications of Advanced Analytics in the Supply ChainAbstract: This talk aim introduces applications of advanced analytics in the supply chain and how the new wave of decision engines enabled by data, technology, and algorithms are transforming businesses. Traditionally, supply chain decision making is influenced by enterprise package solutions that solve a specific set of problems. In the digital age, ability to leverage data and create differentiated business and service models is a key competitive advantage and in many cases a necessity for relevance, e.g., Retail. With the advent of Big Data and Enterprise Data Lake hosting a variety of data across business functions, the decision support landscape is evolving from few sets of software solutions to algorithmic science and Big Data technology that mine, analyze and generate insights from the data that are used for day to day decision making.

The talk touches upon statistical learning methods and AI techniques that can be leveraged to solve real-world business problems, providing a framework for the audience to further think about potential applications of these techniques to their specific business problems.

Bio: Sivakumar Lakshmanan (Siva) is a business leader experienced in building world-class consulting organizations focused on Analytics. He runs the forecasting and supply chain business for Antuit; a Goldman Sachs backed analytics firm. He focuses on helping Antuit’s clients make better decisions in the digital age leveraging data and science.

Before joining Antuit, Siva was a managing director at Insycn, a supply chain analytics start-up servicing clients in Retail, CPG, logistics, and commodity industries in Australia and New Zealand. Siva had also consulted for multiple clients as part of IBM global consulting group, where he was responsible for solution sales and implementation of enterprise supply chain planning, network design, inventory optimization, and visibility solutions.

Title: Applications of Advanced Analytics in the Supply ChainAbstract: This talk aim introduces applications of advanced analytics in the supply chain and how the new wave of decision engines enabled by data, technology, and algorithms are transforming businesses. Traditionally, supply chain decision making is influenced by enterprise package solutions that solve a specific set of problems. In the digital age, ability to leverage data and create differentiated business and service models is a key competitive advantage and in many cases a necessity for relevance, e.g., Retail. With the advent of Big Data and Enterprise Data Lake hosting a variety of data across business functions, the decision support landscape is evolving from few sets of software solutions to algorithmic science and Big Data technology that mine, analyze and generate insights from the data that are used for day to day decision making.

The talk touches upon statistical learning methods and AI techniques that can be leveraged to solve real-world business problems, providing a framework for the audience to further think about potential applications of these techniques to their specific business problems.

Biography: Arash Sangari is a data scientist and AI researcher with more than 10 years of experience in building innovative, and intelligent systems for robotics, decision support, and complex dynamical systems. He leads data science capability within the Antuit Digital Supply Chain business.

Before joining Antuit, Arash was a senior signal processing engineer in a 3M corporate research lab working with several divisions in 3M to bring innovative machine learning and signal processing techniques to improve 3M businesses and products, and he has submitted 10 patents during this involvement. Research and development in multi-disciplinary teams and bringing AI and ML tools to help with problems of different fields has been the focus of Arash’s career.

He has a Ph.D. in Signal Processing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Where

Planner

Udo Sglavo

Senior Director R&D

SAS

TITLE: "SAS Ex Machina Doctrina"

ABSTRACT: It’s true, 2018 was an amazing year for Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) awareness. But can you name three applications for machine learning, other than maybe self-driving cars and voice activated assistants hiding in your phone? We live in exciting times and our relationships with machines, objects and things are quickly changing. Machine learning has actually been a field of its own for several decades, but only recently have we been able to really take advantage of machine learning on a broad scale thanks to modern advancements in computing power. But how does machine learning actually work? What types of machine learning algorithms do exist? And maybe most importantly – what does this all mean for you? Will machines drive us, or will we drive the machines? In this presentation we will have a look at a machine learning landscape and we will lift the curtain on some recent developments at SAS in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

BIO: As senior director of several advanced analytics R&D teams at SAS, I have the privilege to head up a team of highly skilled statisticians, data scientists, computer scientists, and linguists. Jointly we are in charge of creating industry-leading and award-winning software for data mining, machine learning, econometrics, text/voice/image analysis and large scale automatic forecasting. Our team is at the forefront of transforming SAS Software.

I enjoy public speaking and talking to customers about how to apply analytics to solve business problems. I'm comfortable working in an international environment, having established and run a virtual, global team of analytics domain experts.

Kevin Werbach

Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics

Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

TITLE: "Big Data: Big Responsibilities"

ABSTRACT: TBD

BIO: Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Werbach is a pioneer in emerging fields of algorithmic accountability, wireless communications, gamification (applying digital game design principles to business processes) and blockchain governance. Werbach approaches the most pressing issues in tech from a realist standpoint, skeptical of both “techno-utopians” seeing inevitable benefits and pessimists warning that technology will undermine the core values of humanity. Broadly, Werbach communicates a framework in which organizations can leverage technological innovation and effective governance to promote trust. More specifically, he identifies the implications of such technologies as AI, 5G wireless and blockchain, their current states of development and where they can help (and harm) organizations’ goals.

In addition to serving as expert advisor to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and U.S. Department of Commerce, Werbach was a member of the Obama Administration’s Presidential Transition Team. His books include “The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust” (MIT Press, 2018), “For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business” (Wharton Digital Press, 2012, with Dan Hunter) and “After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Algorithms, Humanity” (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2020).

Werbach has appeared frequently in print and broadcast media, including CNN, PBS NewsHour, CNBC, NPR, ABC News, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Economist. His writing has been published in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Wired, Fortune, Slate, IEEE Spectrum, and numerous academic journals, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the FCC. He is an affiliate of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy; a fellow of the Global Institute for Communications in Japan; treasurer of Public Knowledge; and an editorial board member of Wharton Digital Press, Info, The Journal of Information Policy and I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society.

Terry McFadden

ABSTRACT: With over 4 decades of
working with computers, Terry intends to surface the essence of key
learnings from those efforts and how they apply to current AI practitioners.
From the “golden age” of AI, its demise, the rise of the EDW, its apparent
death, the rise of Hadoop, Big Data, Data Lakes, the Cloud, raging ML and
AI resurgence, we’ll examine the ephemeral posits and the enduring insights
that can serve us in today’s environment and beyond.

BIO: Terry has a long history of attacking wicked business problems involving process, data and technology as integrated solutions with global span. Over 39 years, the last 32 at P&G and GE before that, he has touched thousands of projects with astounding value contribution. He has provided strategy consulting to CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and business leaders, coupled with IT mastery to transform businesses processes through data exploitation. This has spanned PLM, ERP, Customer, Consumer, and Master Data as well as functional supporting areas. He has led Corporate Data Architecture and Big Data initiatives, and has patented inventions along the way. The last 8 years focused on starting P&G’s Big Data practice from a blank sheet. He has been a frequent conference presenter at Strata, Open World, Text Analytics Summit, and others as well as a Technical Adviser to US Government Labs efforts, and to others. Terry has an MBA in Information Systems from Xavier University, a BA in History from the University of Cincinnati.